biologia plantarum

Biologia plantarum 54:325-328, 2010 | DOI: 10.1007/s10535-010-0056-5

Somatic embryogenesis from rhizome explants of Cymbopogon winterianus

T. Dey¹, S. Bhattacharya¹, P. D. Ghosh^1,*

¹ Cytogenetics and Plant Biotechnology Research Unit, Department of Botany, University of Kalyani, Kalyani, India

Plantlet regeneration through indirect somatic embryogenesis was attempted from rhizome derived callus of Cymbopogon winterianus Jowitt (cv. Jorlab2). Optimum callus was induced on Murashige and Skoog (MS) basal medium supplemented with 4 mg dm^-3 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). Initially the callus was friable, shiny white and watery in nature. After subculturing on MS medium containing 2,4-D and kinetin (Kn), callus was transferred onto the MS medium supplemented with 2,4 -D, Kn and coconut water to induce somatic embryogenesis. Optimum somatic embryogenesis (78.33 %) was achieved on MS medium containing 3.0 mg dm^-3 2,4-D and 0.5 mg dm^-3 Kn. High frequency (65 %) plantlet conversion from embryos was achieved in MS medium supplemented with 2 mg dm^-3 N⁶-benzyladenine (BA), 0.5 mg dm^-3 Kn, 0.2 mg dm^-3 calcium pantothenate and 0.2 mg dm^-3 biotin.

Keywords: callus induction; 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid; kinetin; plantlet regeneration

Subjects: auxins; Cymbopogon winterianus; cytokinins; in vitro culture, callus; in vitro culture, somatic embryogenesis

Received: June 10, 2008; Accepted: January 15, 2009; Published: June 1, 2010  Show citation